Early adolescent sexual debut in peer networks

Emerging adolescent sexual activity is considered a normative aspect of adolescent development and the transition to adulthood, however, there are potential risks involved when adolescents start having sex, such as teenage pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and undesirable long-term sexual health outcomes (Kastbom et al., 2015). In order to improve sexual education programs and interventions it is important to know more about the context of early sexual initiators. Previous studies showed that social context of peers is a strong predictor of the timing of sexual debut (van de Bongardt, 2015).
In line with Social Contagion Theory, current study investigates the relation between friendship network structure and early adolescent sexual debut. By employing developmental social network approach we test the role friendships play in onset to sexual debut, and how sexual behavior “spreads” in a peer network over time. In this study the network is constructed form the friendship nominations and the sexual debut is an individual attribute.
Adolescence can be characterized by the increased importance of peers. Peer norms, in particular descriptive norms (peer sexual behavior), have a strong impact on adolescents’ sexual behavior. Therefore we hypothesize that the exposure to sexually experienced friends increases the risk for onset in sexually-unexperienced adolescents. Moreover, associations between sexual peer norms and adolescent sexual behavior become stronger as sexual behavior becomes more normative over time. Therefore we hypothesize that the effects of exposure to sexually-experienced friends will be stronger at higher grades.
Stochastic actor-based diffusion model will be applied to test our hypotheses. Using this model we will also be able to account for similarity effects between the sexual behaviors of adolescents and their friends. Moreover, social network approach will allow controlling for structural effects, such as the gender composition and the size of one’s friendship network.
Data stem from the SNARE (Social Network Analysis of Risk behavior in Early adolescence) project; a longitudinal study on adolescents’ involvement in risk behavior in the Netherlands (Dijkstra et al., 2015). All first- and second-year students from two secondary schools were approached for enrollment (2011-2012) and assessments we made every three months starting October 2011. For the present study we are using data of the six waves. A total of 1786 students participated in SNARE (M age at T1 = 12.91 years, SD = 0.70, 50.1% male, 83.9% Dutch). SNARE provides measures of cross-grade friendship networks, within-person onset variable of sexual debut, and other important variables.